The Popularity of Lean

Transcription

1 Todd Godwin

2 The Popularity of Lean Toyota is typically credited with developing lean manufacturing Toyota Production System (TPS) Because of Toyota s success first, and then success of other firms using lean concepts, it has become a very popular model for business improvement For the last decade or two many other manufacturers have also begun to adapt and build their own versions of lean There are also a multitude of consultants and vendors which offer help in lean system design (hardware, software, and management systems).

3 The Popularity of Lean How many people here are working in an environment in some stage of lean implementation? Is it called lean or is some other term used to describe it?.

4 Relevant Questions Where in the organization does the drive to implement lean come from? Are all business areas expected to participate or is it only expected of one or a few?.

5 Relevant Questions Are significant efforts made to help employees understanding the underlying philosophies of lean to create a lean culture or are only tools and methods taught? Is participation mandatory with significant resistance or questioning career limiting?.

6 The Opposition: The Lean Organization First thoughts? I know about continuous improvement and problem solving. The last thing I need is someone coming in with a new idea touting their expertise and telling me what I need to do! I m perfectly happy with the language I speak; I don t need to learn a bunch of Japanese words to understand how to make things better I m not interested in the 5 Why s; I have my own, in depth, root cause failure analysis method that has the horsepower to solve the really tough problems.

7 Common Flaws in Lean Implementation They didn t ask any questions to understand what we already knew about reliability, problem solving and continuous improvement There wasn t much emphasis at all on maintenance or reliability They just kept spouting out requirements and didn t offer any explanation of why they re used or how it all fits together metrics methods meetings etc. This stuff just frustrates the workforce.

8 What Do We Do? We Fight!! We use our substantial knowledge of problem solving and especially our understanding of latent, management system issues to ensure that every single flaw and frustration is made obvious to whomever will listen!

9 Is Fighting the Best Option? Lean programs often emanate from the operations and/or management sides of our business; for this reason it isn t uncommon for them to have substantial authority behind them Even if we are able to convince people that the lean implementation is full of holes does that do anything to help us advance our own cause? Often the best option is not to fight, but it is to understand better and then devise an action plan.

10 Lean & Reliability: Common Ground Lean shares many of its fundamental concepts with reliability excellent problem solving proactive work respect for the facts systematic approaches to improvement pursue continual improvement requires the creation of a proper mindset, or culture, to truly achieve Because of fundamental similarities, lean and reliability should compliment each other rather than competing.

11 Lean History Toyota is typically credited with creating lean but they did not create all of the concepts, they pulled them from other sources and assembled them into a cohesive culture and strategy. Toyoda Motor Looms Henry Ford and Ford s assembly line process Edward Deming Pull systems utilized in grocery stores Shigeo Shingo and the Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED).

12 Common Lean Tools Value Stream Map (VSM) Flow (and one piece flow) Pull SMED and Quick Changeover Standardized Work 5S Birdhouses Gemba Walks.

13 Value Stream Map (VSM) Rather than viewing the operation from the standpoint of areas or the employees, value stream mapping views it from the standpoint of the actual product or service that is ultimately provided to the paying customer This map covers the product from its raw state through its entire transformation into a finished, saleable product.

14 Value Stream Map (VSM) There are three types of activities identified value added non-value added but necessary non-value added and unnecessary Strive to eliminate non-value added, unnecessary work and to reduce non-value added necessary work.

15 Flow Flow refers to the movement of the product or service through the subsequent stages of conversion from its raw state to its finished state Good flow brings problems to the surface quickly so that they can be quickly solved quality problems affect fewer components reliability problems become immediately obvious etc..

16 One Piece Flow One piece flow is the theoretical ideal for flow The product or service flows without stopping from the beginning of the process to the end station 1 performs step 1 and immediately and directly passes the part to station 2 station 2 performs step 2 and immediately and directly passes the part to station 3 etc..

17 Pull Pull is used where flow cannot be achieved the trigger for an upstream station to produce is created by the station immediately downstream grocery store stocking pull simplifies movement of products through the facility because it automatically adjusts for higher or lower demand Kanban systems are sometimes used to create pull.

18 SMED or Quick Changeover Most often a single piece of equipment is used to process different types of products Changeover time is a major factor in setting the optimum batch size longer changeover times work best with large batch sizes shorter changeover times allow smaller batch sizes while still maintaining efficiency Large batch sizes inhibit flexibility and continuous flow.

19 SMED or Quick Changeover SMED Single Minute Exchange of Dies the die change is on a large automotive panel stamping die this was a specific effort to see how fast a die change could be performed if all efforts to minimize actual press downtime were made analogous to a well planned maintenance job at one time the record was 52 seconds

20 Standardized Work Standardized work reduces the variability introduced by the work force Reduced variability leads to a more stable process which is more easily understood and more easily corrected when something is wrong.

21 Other Common Tools and Phrases 5S Seiri - Sort Seiton - Straighten Seiso - Shine Seiketsu - Standardize Shitskuke Sustain Birdhouses an area board where visual indicators are shown and where the value adding workforce gathers to review indicators, problem solve, etc.

22 Other Common Tools and Phrases Gemba Walks Gemba is the actual or real place it is a process of going to the place of work to gain understanding the process of Gemba walks is typically for a manager to tour a process to gain first hand understand what is happening where the actual work is taking place

23 Both Lean and Reliability are rooted in accurately understanding the facts, understanding good problem solving and then implementing robust solutions so that the ultimate productivity of the process improves.

24 You cannot be lean if you are not reliable Both Lean and Reliability are in agreement: this statement is exactly true

25 Lean and Reliability in Our Own Facilities

26 What We Might Encounter Universal deployment utilizing all lean concepts Operations deployment which ignores maintenance and reliability Universal deployment utilizing only a portion of the lean concepts (typically focusing on specific tools)

27 Universal Deployment of All Lean Concepts What does this mean for us? Maintenance and reliability concepts are formally included in the continuous improvement efforts we will probably have to familiarize ourselves with some new terms the things with which we are most concerned will be included organization wide use standard work to optimize processes before modifying issues related to maintainability are surfaced and addressed poor part specifications and suppliers are identified as more focus is placed on process performance rather than outright cost

28 Recommendations Study lean in order to identify similar lean and reliability concepts to aid integration more quickly become familiar with concepts to facilitate participation in and influence of focus areas and efforts

29 Operations Deployment Which Ignores Maintenance and Reliability What does this mean for us? We can continue to do business as we always have if we so choose If the lean implementation has strong backing it may be to our advantage to understand how to leverage this backing to advance maintenance and reliability Nothing will happen that will dramatically affect us unless we initiate it.

30 Recommendations Understand the organizational benefits which can be obtained by identifying the link between lean and reliability. If there is justification then study lean in order to work into a leadership roll within the facility Use this leadership roll to begin to integrate lean concepts pertaining to maintenance and reliability into existing efforts.

31 Universal Deployment Utilizing Only a Portion of the Lean Concepts or Only Lean Tools What does this mean for us? Many of the lean tools require cross functional support teams of which maintenance and reliability personnel are included These activities can represent an enormous drain on resources while providing little or no positive impact on reliability If the organization pushing lean is strong it may be impossible to resist involvement

32 What Types of Personnel Requirements Daily birdhouse meetings typically one per machine or machine group requiring 15 to 30 minutes Monthly performance meetings configured around the same business units as the birdhouses with one meeting per crew lasting an 30 min to 1 hr each Presence at both of these will likely lead to the accumulation of a large amount of honey do projects or machine modifications to overcome work method issues

33 Recommendations Realize the difficultly in successfully navigating this scenario. Because resistance is futile there is only one clear way forward This type of lean implementation most often results from an incomplete and erred understanding of lean and its concepts The task is to become a lean expert, become a part of the lean implementation and use true understanding and influence to try to achieve a more complete lean implementation

34 Recommended Reading The Toyota Way Jeffrey Liker, McGraw-Hill, 2003 Lean Thinking, 2 nd Ed James P Womack & Daniel T Jones, Free Press, 2003

35 Questions?

36 Thank You